My Curiosity Is Peaked!

/ August 2, 2012

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so, you know that the current “big thing” in space exploration is NASA’s Curiosity Rover: The Coolest Mars Landing Ever Attempted. What you might not be aware of, however, is that it’s scheduled to make its landing on Mars in just over three and a half days – at at 05:31 UTC (1:31am EDT) on August 6, 2012, to be precise.

I’ve been following the progress of the mission for weeks now, and collecting tons and tons of links, but the following videos are by far the coolest things I’ve seen. The first is one of the two “Grand Entrance” mission videos hosted by Star Trek actors William Shatner and Wil Wheaton. As far as I know, the only difference between the two is the narrator, so I’ve chosen to show just the William Shatner version in this post:

The second video is called “7 Minutes of Terror” and it does an even better job of detailing the frighteningly large number of things that have to go just right in order for Curiosity to safely land on Mars to begin its actual job as the Mars Science Laboratory:

Wow, those videos just blow me away every time I see them. I, for one, will be sitting on pins and needles pretty much all of Sunday night! 😯

Anyway… here’s a few links to more information if you want to follow up:

BTW, the first two links even have cool “Countdown Timers” to help you stay on track with the mission.

I want ice water.

See more from the Visual Treats volume

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34 thoughts on “My Curiosity Is Peaked!”

    • As do I Luddy. As do I. From where I sit, the mathematics of orbital trajectories and gravity assist is amazing enough, but Curiosity seems to have even more than the usual number of mechanical systems that must work exactly as designed too!

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  8. A little off topic, but what amazes me most is how our view of Mars has changed, since the Viking probes landed there, and we found out the truth about it. I have a CD recording of the original “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast done by Orson Welles, in 1938–you know, the one that terrified millions of people because there were too few commercial breaks, and it was done in such an ingenious way. And it still sounds real! What I wonder is this though–why Mars? Why haven’t we traditionally been afraid of invaders from Venus instead? Is it just because of H.G. Wells’ novel?

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      • That “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast was truly one of the best (and scariest) things ever broadcast Scott. I’d love to have that on CD! I personally think the fears about Mars can be directly traced to the assumption that the so-called “canal system” was evidence for a highly advanced Martian civilization… 😀

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  9. Yes the TV has been full of it all here too,…
    And they already know there were little green men… lol..:) I mean IzaakMak,,,, look at you! .. ETs are All over the place! hehe…
    Just sending you a Dreamwalker hug.. in this alien world we live in..
    Blessings Sue x

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  10. I saw today on the news they’re estimating a touchdown of 1:30 AM on Monday. So assuming that is Eastern time, then it’ll be around 11:30 PM on Sunday my time. So hopefully will be able to see it. I’ve been really looking forward to it. I so hope everything goes right. It’s amazing what they did in order for the probe to land without damage.

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  11. A great posting Mak
    and I will be calling in
    again to check out the
    links that you have 🙂

    Have you read the book
    Chariots of the Gods?
    It is worth a read Mak 🙂

    Androgoth

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